Hitler and the Occult -- Thesis

Total Length: 863 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 3



Hundreds of thousands regularly gathered themselves into sports stadiums and historic courtyards where Hitler and other senior Nazi officials publicly proclaimed the duty of "true" German citizens to unite in national pride and issued vitriolic speeches about the manner in which the Jews had brought about the outcome of World War I and their responsibility for poisoning German society. On the eve of World War II, Hitler himself warned his nation of fanatical followers that it was "international Jewry" that was threatening the entire world, that the world was on the verge of global military conflict because of the Jews, and that it would be the Jews who reaped what they had sewn should Germany be plunged into another war.

Justifying Genocide in Practice

By the time that millions of Jews were being rounded up and incinerated by the millions throughout Europe, the German people were sufficiently indoctrinated with racial animus toward the Jews and cultural hatred for the Slavic people that ordinary citizens were completely indifferent to the obvious evidence that their government was conducting genocide throughout the European Continent with the full intention of replicating it in Britain and the United States as soon as possible.

Initially, the Nazi hierarchy referred to the systematic imprisonment and murder of Jews only euphemistically as "resettlement in the East" and solving the "Jewish Problem.
" Not until 1944 when German defeat was imminent did Himmler openly refer to the murder of the Jews in a speech to several hundred German generals. By that time, Himmler was probably hoping to convey a sense of shared responsibility by eliminating any possible or plausible deniability among his Generals, presumably to motivate their renewed commitment to a failing war effort. In that regard, Himmler specifically referred to the "courage" of those capable of doing what was "necessary" and to the fact that one of the curses of greatness was having to advance over dead bodies for the good of the German people.

In retrospect, it is impossible for most German citizens not to have known exactly what was happening to the Jews in their country as many German civilians maintained into modernity. Across Germany, the Rhineland's, and Austria, German citizens witnessed (and participated in) the rampant persecution of Jews in the pre-war years, followed by the systematic (literal) removal of Jews from their shared neighborhoods. German people willingly accepted facile explanations for why their Jewish neighbors were forcibly removed from their homes, their belongings thrown in the street, and non-Jewish Germans granted their homes….....

Show More ⇣


     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Hitler And The Occult --" (2009, November 04) Retrieved May 18, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/hitler-occult-17860

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Hitler And The Occult --" 04 November 2009. Web.18 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/hitler-occult-17860>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Hitler And The Occult --", 04 November 2009, Accessed.18 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/hitler-occult-17860